A wealth tax of up to 2% on the richest 1% would raise more than £40bn a year

12 August 2014

The Green Party says the tax would affect around 300,000 people with assets of more than £3m - the richest 1% of people in the UK. In a report on possible rates, it suggests that the tax could be set between 1% and 2%, which would raise £23bn atthe lower end or up to £43bnat the higher end of the spectrum.

( The UK deficit is estimated at £126bn)

The Party says that the UK's richest 1,000 people have doubled their wealth in the last five years, while the number in poverty and resorting to food banks has risen sharply. It also mentions an analysis by the Equality Trust that has found the richest 1% of Britons has the same amount of wealth as 54% of the rest of the population.

The report points out that wealth taxes of different kinds are already in place in France, Spain, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. It also cites the work of French economist Thomas Piketty who has found that the rate of return on capital outstrips the rate of growth and that inherited wealth will therefore always grow faster than earned income. Piketty's much discussed new book, Capital in the 21st Century, is on Labour leader Ed Miliband's reading list. Miliband has said inequality is the defining problem of modern times.

The wealth tax proposal is one of a number of policies from the Greens whose pledges include closing all tax loopholes,tax heavens and recoup all unpaid taxes. The Greens support moves to impose a small tax on all banking and financial transactions across the European Union and capbanker's bonuses.

Green Party members are totally opposed to the unnecessary and unfair austerity measures. We have pledged to scrap the £93bnnuclear weapon Trident project, the welfare cap and bed-room tax and re-nationalise the railways as well as bring in a living wage. We are against the privatisation of the NHS and against Free-Schools.

Natalie Bennett stated that the Green Party is "prepared to take principled stands and an increasing number of voters recognise and value this ".

She added that we are the only party committed to progressive policies that tackle Britain's problem with inequality, which helped us to gain more votes than the Liberal Democrats in the May 2014 local elections. The party's membership has risen by almost a quarter in the last five months.

This is confirmed locally where the Green Party has doubled its membership and has become a main political party in the Borough, ahead of the Lib-Dem.